In a short range wireless communication using Bluetooth (a registered trademark and the same shall apply hereinafter) or the like, a communication is performed between a master side wireless communication device (which will be hereinafter referred to as a “master terminal”) and a slave side wireless communication device (which will be hereinafter referred to as a “slave terminal”). The master terminal is a device that controls a wireless communication during a communication with the slave terminal, and also, is a device that starts a communication. The slave terminal is a device that performs a communication under control of a wireless communication of the master terminal, and also, is a device to which the master terminal is coupled via a wireless communication.
A technology in which, when a device establishes a connection with another electronic device via a short range wireless communication, control is performed such that communication history information including information, which has been used for establishing a connection with the another electronic device, is not left in a storage unit has been known (for example, Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2008-42632). Using this technology, security when the device transmits and receives information to and from the another electronic device is increased. For example, Japanese National Publication of International Patent Application No. 2007-523532 discusses related art.
In a short range wireless communication, pairing of a master terminal and a slave terminal is performed, and a connection and a communication between the terminals are enabled. In other words, in a short range wireless communication, each time the master terminal is changed, pairing between the master terminal and the slave terminal is performed.
However, it takes time and labor to perform an operation of the pairing. For example, when the slave terminal is coupled to the master terminal at a host side, an operation in which a user selects a slave terminal that is to be coupled from a group of slave terminals that have been recognized by the master terminal and has been displayed on the master terminal occurs. Then, as the number of slave terminals that are selection targets increases, the time and labor of an operation of the pairing increase.
As a method for reducing the time and labor, there is a function of storing, at a slave side terminal, a master terminal which has once undergone an authentication procedure and been coupled to the slave terminal in advance and then establishing a connection with the master terminal without performing an authentication procedure. However, in this case, the number of master terminals that may be stored in the slave terminal is about one to eight. Therefore, if there are many master terminals that are capable of performing a short range wireless communication, a reconstruction is desired to be performed such that the master terminals may be recorded in the slave terminal. Assume that a configuration in which many master terminals may be recorded in a slave terminal is employed. In this case, for each of the master terminals, a user authenticates a plurality of user's own devices each of which is capable of performing a short range wireless communication as slave terminals and then performs pairing at least once. Because of this, it takes time and labor to perform an operation of the pairing. In view of the foregoing, it is desirable to reduce, in a short range wireless communication, the time and labor for coupling a device that has made an inquiry for a connection and one of devices that have responded to the inquiry to one another, while maintaining security.